Intelligent Design Theory - Pros and Cons, the Concept - Research Paper Example

?Intelligent Design Introduction The origin of life, according to Darwin, evolved from a single organism that developed and replicated over time and mutated into various organisms. This evolution is said to be underpinned by the natural selection process, where traits that had no use for survival were dropped and those traits that were useful were developed and refined. Before the theory of evolution had been accepted as a scientific fact, the theory of creationism - the belief that a Supreme Being created the world - served as the explanation of the origin of life. This theory was defeated by the evolutionists largely because it was deemed unscientific and cannot be supported by empirical evidence. Moreover, the principle of separation of state and the Church has precluded its teaching in schools. Nonetheless, creationism never really disappeared especially for those who remained to abide by the principles of Christian fundamentalism. Today, creationism takes a different shape, a shape that promises to be more scientifically in sync by underscoring empirical evidence rather than the idea of a Divine Being to explain its thesis. The concept of intelligent design emerged in the latter part of the 20th century and was founded by experts in various scientific fields. The arguments underpinning this concept attempt to point out the inability of the Darwinian evolution to explain certain phenomena. The arguments underlying the intelligent design concept are discussed in the preceding paragraphs as well as the counter-arguments of those who opposed them. Background: History of Intelligent Design The intelligent design movement is assailed as being rooted in Christian fundamentalism, a religious movement that originated in the United States and was sparked by the rise of Christian modernism in Europe in the late 19th century. The fundamentalist came out with a series of 12 booklets called collectively The Fundamentals: The Testimony of the Truth that attacked, among others, Darwin’s theory of evolution (Flank 17-21). Darwin’s Origin of Species, which was published in 1859, began to be taught in US schools and the fundamentalists vehemently fought this. Christian fundamentalist, however, declined after the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925 where legal luminary Clarence Darrow acted as counsel in a test case that breached a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution. In this case, the fundamentalists were depicted as “uneducated hicks and backwoods country bumpkins” (Flank 21-24). In 1987, however, the final blow was dealt to creation science when the US SC itself invalidated an Arkansas law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in the case of Edwards v Aguillard 482 US 578 (1987) (Young & Edis 2-3). With the death of creation science, intelligent design took its place as a theory that was foist to foil Darwin’s evolution. Conceived in the 1980s, it was the brainchild of some Christian intellectuals such as Phillip Johnson, who wrote Darwin on Trial, Michael Behe, a biochemist, and William Debski, a mathematician and philosopher, among others. Johnson subsequently established the right-wing think tank Center for Science and Culture and published a new book called The Wedge of Truth after the group’s wedge strategy, which has purportedly the overthrow of materialism as its goal. The strategy consists of the publication of books and technical and scientific materials within a span of five years to be incorporated into the public school system as well as to drum up support from their “natural constituency, namely, Christians” (Young and Edis 3). Intelligent Design: The Concept Intelligence design is an origin-of-life theory that opposes the natural selection essence of evolution. Thus, this concept subscribes to the idea that there must be a grand ‘designer’ out there who directs the development of life because life and the universe are too complex to have merely come on their own without any entity or being guiding them. This theory directly conflicts with Darwin’s belief that all life evolved from a single organism, which developed over time through DNA mutation and natural selection, the process where traits that allow an organism to survive its environment are enhanced and developed fully and those that do not are gradually dropped or disappeared (Flank 12-13). However, rather than backing up their theory with Biblical proof, the people behind intelligent design seeks to fight fire with fire, that is, by explaining intelligent design scientifically through empirical and mathematical evidence, hoping that they will eventually undermine Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection. The intelligent design concept is illustrated by Michael Behe’s complex structures called irreducibly complex as presented in his book Darwin’s Black Box published in 1996. The irreducibly complex structures “presents an insurmountable challenge” to Darwin theory of evolution because such structures could not have been a product of evolution since it could not function with only two or three of its parts (Young & Edis 4). Behe described the irreducibly complex in the following excerpt from his book: By ‘irreducibly complex’ I mean a single system composed of several well matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any of any one of its parts causes the system to effectively ceased functioning. An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly (that is by continuously improving the initial function, which continues to work by the same mechanism) by slight successive modifications of the precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition non- functional (cited Smith & Quenby 51). Behe likened his ‘irreducibly complex’ structures to a household mousetrap, which consists at once of several parts such as platform, spring, holding bar, catch and hammer. All of these components are necessary to operate the trap and an absence of any one of them makes the trap useless (Smith & Quenby 51). Examples of such structures, according to Behe, are the bacterial flagellum and the blood-clotting systems (Young & Edis 4). Intelligent Design: Pros and Cons The first argument in favor of intelligent design that its movers relies upon is Behe’s irreducibly complex structures. According to Behe, the existence of such structures in biochemistry proves that evolution is not the ultimate answer to the question of life because there are things that natural selection cannot explain. Since an irreducibly complex structure cannot be broken down into parts, which would render it useless, natural selection, according to Behe, is available only after all parts have been assembled. This defies selection’s essence since intermediate simpler stages should have made each part non-functional and subject to negative selection. This warrants the idea of an intelligent designer possible (Sarkar 96-97). However, opponents of Behe states, among others, it is also a possibility that the components of an irreducible complex structure could have co-evolved independent from each other and had uses other than being part of that structure in their earlier forms. Moreover, a new theory must be supported by other established theories to be widely accepted such as the way Einstein’s theories predict Newtonian concept during the slow pace of objects, but Behe’s theory does not do that and in fact conflicts with fossil records (Young & Edis 53-54). On the other hand, William Dembski, another intelligent design proponent, posits the theory of specified complexity or complex specified information (CSI). Specified complexity is any long sequence of prime numbers or events that has mathematical significance, independent of other processes around it. For example, the sequence “THETHETHETHETHETHE” has a specific pattern, but that pattern is simple. On the other hand, the sequence “XGOENAODIWGTNHPLXCVWQ” is complex, yet unspecified because it is meaningless. However, in the sequence “THIS SENTENCE CONTAINS VALUABLE INFORMATION” has both a meaningful pattern and therefore, specific as well as complexity, because it can denote various meanings (Dembski & 104). According to Dembski, specified complexity is an indication of intelligent design because anything that is not a product of regularity or chance can only happen by design. Dembski cites as an example the patterns of molecular sequences in the DNA, which he says cannot have been generated by natural causes because of its intelligent complex specificity. However, opponents point out that Dembski’s theory is merely an inference to the best explanation rather than a product of deductive reasoning. Thus, there is really no definite assurance that such specified complexities cannot occur as well through natural processes, although the intelligent design is, from experience, a big probability. Dembski’s theory, therefore, lacks negative evidence that would conclusively show that natural mechanisms could not have taken place in specified complex structures (Fowler and Kebler 2007). Moreover, Hingston et al observed that specified complexity is underpinned by a statistical approach that has not been validated by peer review (2008: 28). Another argument that intelligent design members offer is the fine-tuned universe theory. This argument states that the world seems to have been created exactly so as to sustain life, with all the conditions, such as the “value of physical constants, the strength of nuclear forces, chemical processes,” among others, which, had they been slightly different from what they are now would not have made life on earth possible. This, according to intelligent design proponents is proof that there is an intelligent designer out there who had deliberately designed things so as to create an environment fit for life (Anderson 68; Gordon 42). Opponents of this argument contend that this belongs to a philosophy discussion and not a scientific one because of the fact that it cannot be made subject to an observable test (Smith 307). Conclusion The arguments underpinning the theory of intelligent design, as pointed out by its opponents, are not without flaws. The irreducibly complex argument, for example, is found to be tenuous because it is unsupported and uncorroborated by other established theories and the specified complexity argument resting on inferences to the best explanation rather than a verifiable proof pointing to the impossibility that other competing explanations are impossible. On the other hand, the highly rational strong fine-tuned universe argument is said to be fit only for philosophical discussions because of its inherent inability to be subjected to empirical tests. Nonetheless, the fate of intelligence design is not yet certain at this stage considering that it is a new and still developing theory. Darwin’s theory of evolution did not immediately revolutionize science or the scientific community as it was met initially with strong opposition. There were more oppositionists to it than those who agreed with it at first time when The Origin of the Species was first published in 1859 (Iron 12-15). As it is, even some of the opponents of intelligent design have indicated that some of these arguments have real substance, acknowledging that it is a sophisticated theory and a far cry from the fundamentalists’ creationism. Moreover, the design theory has received a lot of coverage from legitimate media and journals and even from Scientific American, which took its time to devote a stinging review of Phillip Johnson’s book Darwin on Trial, an indication of the significance of the theory (Giberson & Yerxa 219). All these attention heaped on intelligence design, whether positive or negative, show that the theory has stirred the hornet’s nest, so to speak, in the same way that all other great theories have initially split and divided the scientific community apart when they were first introduced publicly. Works Cited Anderson, Kerby. A Biblical Point of View on Intelligent Design. Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2008. Print. Dembski, William & McDowell, S. Understanding Intelligent Design: Everything You Need to Know in Plain Language. Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2008. Print. Flank, Larry. Deception by Design: The Intelligent by Design Movement in America. USA: Red and Black Publishers, 2007. Print. Fowler, Thomas and Daniel Kuebler. The evolution controversy: a survey of competing theories. Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007. Print. Giberson, Karl and Donald Yerxa. Species of Origins: America's Search for a Creation Story. Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. Print. Gordon, Sherri Mabry. The Evolution Debate: Darwinism Vs. Intelligent Design. Enslow Publishers, Inc., 2009. Print. Hingston, Phillip and Luigi Barone, Zbigniew Michalewics. Design by Evolution: Advances in Evolutionary Design. Berlin: Springer, 2008. Print. Iron, Claudia. Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species": Science, Rhetoric and Revolution. GRIN Verlag, 2008. Sarkar, Sahotra. Doubting Darwin?: Creationist Designs on Evolution. UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2007. Print. Smith, Jonathan. Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal: A Critical Thinker's Toolkit. UK: John Wiley and Sons, 2009. Print. Smith, John and John Quenby. Intelligent Faith: A Celebration of 150 Years of Darwinian Evolution. UK: O Books, 2009. Print. Young, Matt & Tanner Edis. Why Intelligent Design Fails: A Scientific Critique of the New Creationism. USA: Rutgers University Press, 2006. Print. Read More